Cake-Cutting Technique for Mathematical Loners

This cake-cutting technique maximizes the amount of gastronomic pleasure one can achieve with a cake -- an achievement that is not to be sniffed at.

I just received an email from my chum Aubrey Kagan (a.k.a. Antedeluvian). The subject line was "Having your cake and eating it." I like cake, so I didn't dilly-dally or shilly-shally. I opened the little scamp immediately. Inside, I found a link to this video featuring Alex Bellos, a British writer and broadcaster and the author of books about Brazil and mathematics.

Have you ever thought about the way in which we cut a cake -- typically as a series of wedges? This may be OK if there's a crowd and the entire cake is fated to be devoured in a single sitting, but what about Mathematical Loners who do not wish to share their consumables? Cutting out one or more wedges leaves two large interior surfaces open to the elements. These faces exude moisture and dry out, thereby impacting one's cake-eating experience in the days to come.

I'm obviously not the first person to lose sleep over this (the sense of despair is only heightened in the case of my birthday chocolate cake -- so much cake to eat, so little time before it become inedible). Way back in the mists of time, circa 1906, the British mathematician Sir Francis Galton -- Charles Darwin's first cousin and "The Father of Statistics" -- wrote in a letter to the international journal Nature that "The ordinary method of cutting out a wedge is very faulty," and he offered an intriguing solution.

Alex demonstrates this solution in the above video. As he notes, this techniques maximizes the amount of gastronomic pleasure one can achieve with a cake, and such an achievement is certainly nothing to be sniffed at.

Meanwhile, I think I will be surprising my wife (Gina the Gorgeous) with my newfound cake-cutting skills when she performs her magic and creates my chocolate birthday cake next year. How about you? Do you think the cake-cutting technique demonstrated in this video is one you might employ yourself?

I see a major flaw in this cake-cutting technique, which is that it really skimps on the frosting while cutting the early pieces, thereby robbing or gipping the frosting lover out of a gastronomical pleasure. I'd trade off a few dry crumbs for more frosting, but as others point out our cakes don't usually last that long anyway!

Yes, I did make a few comments on the proper way to cut a bagel. Slicing challah as opposed to teating it doesnt mean it's no loner challah, it just tastes different. For one thing, sliced challah goes stale more rapidly that torn because there's so much surface area.

With regards to Max's birthday, I recommend the following cake. It may be difficult to apply the cake cutting technique to it, but one could cut it, at least initially on the nose, such that only one surface is exposed--that is if one is courageous enough to get close enough to the lion to start with: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5591/14872632232_d08918314f_z.jpg

This cake was baked for me as a kid. My assignment was to ride my bike up to the corner store to buy the licorice for it.

Now it is possible that Gina the Gorgeous would be willing to bake a lion cake for Max, but perhaps would want something else for herself. Hence, here is a cute pink elephant cake for Max to try his cooking skills with. Now as far as cutting this cake goes, it will probably require some calculus. The Angel Flake in the rhyme refers to Angel Flake coconut, which is quite tasty to nibble on while making the cake:https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3844/14686284890_12d2a8ca78_z.jpg

Max's 'blog shows the clear superiority of the Bûche de Noël over circular cakes. The bûche slices reduce the exposed surface area. However, I find that if any cake gets stale chez moi it must be defective.